ALLEN WINS CASH FOR MISSING OUT ON THE MERCURYS

Last week, while we were busy elsewhere, the Mercury Music Prize shortlist was announced.

These, then, are the 12 "best" albums of the last year:

Arctic Monkeys - 'Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not'
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - 'Ballad Of The Broken Seas'
Editors - 'The Back Room'
Guillemots - 'Through The Windowpane'
Richard Hawley - 'Coles Corner'
Hot Chip - 'The Warning'
Muse - 'Black Holes & Revelations'
Zoe Rahman - 'Melting Pot'
Lou Rhodes - 'Beloved One'
Scritti Politti - 'White Bread Black Beer'
Sway - 'This Is My Demo'
Thom Yorke - 'The Eraser'

From these, only one can go ahead to be given the career kiss-of-death and small cash reward; you'd have to fancy Editor's chances in the "not too obvious, but not too much of a showing-off" stakes.

Lily Allen, apparently, was considered by her record company to be such a likely candidate for the prize (her album, Alright, That'll Do, came out on the very last day to qualify) that they've lobbed her twenty grand to make up for the harsh discovery that, when pressed, people don't actually think it's up to much.

Not that the record company are being generous - they'll probably claw it back through "marketing" costs anyway.

music mercury music prize editors lily allen